​The official government numbers aren’t in yet, but according to meteorologists at AccuWeather and elsewhere, this winter will likely go down as the warmest on record for the lower 48.

Parts of the Upper Midwest and Northeast were especially warm from December through February, areas of the country that rely on snow and cold to attract tourists and their dollars to ski resorts, ice rinks and snowmobile trails.

But this year, the warm weather — caused by a potent mix of climate change and El Niño — forced the cancellation of events, led to fewer open trails and also some creative thinking by business owners and organizers.

On Feb. 12, Kelly Probst and her board made a decision. The nonprofit CopperDog’s sled dog race in Michigan’s upper peninsula would not happen this year. There just wasn’t enough snow.

“Looking at the forecast, looking at what our trail conditions were at the time, and what was required for us to run a safe race. And it was just, it was apparent it just was not going to happen,” said Probst.

Normally, this race attracts mushers from around the country — and thousands of spectators — the first weekend of March. Calling the race off three weeks ahead was a gamble, Probst says. But on race day, she was right.

“The weather here was in the upper 40s, sunshine and wind,” she said.

Terrible conditions for snow. Making that call early though, she says, saved the organization tens of thousands of dollars on banners and pennants they didn’t print and hotel rooms they didn’t fill. And there’s a good chance they’ll have to make tough calls like this in the future. 

“Reliability is a thing of the past, increasingly,” said Justin Mankin, a climate scientist at Dartmouth College. As the climate warms, he says, winters just don’t have as much consistent cold and snow as they used to.

“What that means for the winter sports and winter tourism business model is that it’s getting squeezed into a shorter season,” he said.

And so businesses are trying to squeeze revenue out of every snowy day. Lindsay DesLauriers is president of Bolton Valley, a ski resort in northern Vermont. She says they’ve brought in new snowmakers.

“Being able to make more snow faster, more efficiently, has been incredibly important to us,” said DesLauriers.

They’ve also invested in summer options for additional revenue — a wedding venue and mountain biking trails. 

In northern Michigan, Kelly Probst held a scaled down dog race last weekend. Instead of a miles-long trek, they hauled in snow to create a short track and held what she calls drag races.

“You put two teams up against each other with two dogs, and race them down the road. And it was wildly successful,” she said.

There was food, bonfires and a beer tent. A smaller crowd than normal, but it was fun, she says. And now they know what to do in future years if there’s not enough snow.